Friday, November 5, 2010

When I was applying to college the first time--I went a second time and got a second B.A.--an organization called the College Scholarship Service gathered information from me and my father about our finances and determined how much of my college bill we each should pay. The colleges used the CSS to determine how much they would pay, how much I would pay, and how much my father would pay.

The yearly amount Yale specified that my father would pay was $2000.

Unfortunately, he refused to pay that much. He paid $1200.

Yale never asked me how much he paid and I assume it never asked him either.

I was forced to apply all my summer earnings to cover the difference of $800 each year.

I never complained. This was my father.

Now I'm complaining. Why didn't Yale verify that my father was paying what they determined was his fair share of the bill?

My troubles at Yale were compounded by having to live on a budget without margins.

Additionally, representatives of Yale at a college night at my high school had claimed that Yale would cover what I and my father couldn't. They didn't say anything about loans. When Yale raised its tuition I was forced to accept what it called a Tuition Postponement Option, essentially a loan.

My immaturity prevented me from realizing that both Yale and my father were forcing hardships on me that I never had a chance to assess before going to college and spending my money on it.

Then IIT appeared. I was apparently worth more as a debtor than as a graduate to them. They failed to inform me in my third year when my loans were ready to be signed. As a result, no loans, no final semester, no degree. How am I going to earn an income without a professional degree?

Well, no one was there before I went to IIT to advise me that with a resume showing eight years of undefinable time due to homelessness there would be no hope of getting a job, even if I had the degree.

I am sick of all the lousy input I have gotten in life from those who supposedly were my trusted family and friends.

Alma mater--other mother. What a joke.

No wonder American education is deteriorating. It's fraudulent. You can't build on a rotten foundation.

The U.S. is declining in the world. It thought it was great. It wasn't. It isn't. It won't be.

It considers me irrelevant.

As it sinks into recession, it will regret considering me irrelevant. I will be glad when I die in poverty that I could see the U.S. declining around me.